This month we bring you news from across the Lowcountry relating to the hospitality, aviation, medical, housing and online retail sectors. Follow the links provided where you see bold blue font for more details about the topics that interest you. Happy reading!
Four Seasons’ first SC hotel will be built on Meeting Street - on the site of the former Days Inn motel - in Historic Downtown Charleston. The luxury property will feature an outdoor pool, spa, fitness center, dining, retail and event space as well as 139 hotel rooms and 36 private and fully-serviced residences priced from $5 million. The expected completion is for 2028.
Breeze Airways launched its new nonstop service between Charleston and Burlington, Vermont in late May. The seasonal route will operate on Mondays and Fridays into the fall.
After 170 years in the Lowcountry, Roper St. Francis Healthcare broke ground in June on a new hospital with a Level II Trauma Center, centrally located in North Charleston near City Hall. Construction of the $1.2B project - to be built to withstand a category 5 hurricane - will employ about 3,600 construction workers over a four-year period, with completion anticipated by mid- 2029.
For the past 6 years, Pensievision, a Charleston startup company, has used its 3D imaging technology with liquid-tunable lenses in cervical cancer treatment. Now, in partnership with the College of Charleston and Chile’s Space and Planetary Exploration Lab, it is on the path to being one of the first SC companies to send its technology to space. In August, the company will have a payload in a device sent to the International Space Station. The camera will be used in an experiment to “test microbial life resilience in space… If successful, it could demonstrate compact, adaptive imaging for remote environments… in future lunar and Mars missions.” Results are expected by August.
Charleston County has opened the application period for needs-based, below-market-rate, revolving loans “to support the creation and preservation of affordable and workforce housing” through a partnership between its new Housing Our Future Trust Fund and the SC Community Loan Fund. The County will draw $8.35M from local accommodations tax revenues to seed the trust fund. Funds can be used for acquisition, rehab, new construction and planning.
Amazon has expanded its footprint into Dorchester County with a newly opened same-day delivery distribution center in Summerville that uses robotic and AI technology to service a 50-mile radius in the Lowcountry. The $30M, 150,000-sqft sorting and delivery facility is located in Jedburg Logistics Park and will create more than 100 full-time jobs for the region.
